Christy Carlson Romano is speaking out about nearly losing an eye after she was shot in the face four months ago.
During an appearance on the upcoming June 10 episode of the “Not a Damn Chance!” podcast, via a sneak peek by People magazine, the 41-year-old former Disney star recalled the terrifying incident while she was shooting clay pigeons with her husband, Brendan Rooney, for his birthday.
Asked how it happened, Romano explained she was not “at liberty to say specifics,” according to People. The actress previously revealed on Instagram that she was “hit in five places,” including below her eye.
Romano shared details for the first time about what transpired.
“It’s a birdshot that got sprayed in my direction by another party, and essentially it was within 200 feet, which means really fast and hot,” she told hosts Neen Williams and Frankland Lee.
“They weren’t malicious,” Romano clarified. “It wasn’t aggravated assault. It’s what happened.”
The “Even Stevens” star then emphasized the importance of gun safety and described her initial response.
“I feel very out of body about it. … It’s pretty wild,” she said. “I’m shocked, and what goes through my head immediately is, ‘Oh that’s dope, I just got shot.’ And then I go, ‘Oh now I’m gonna die,'” she said.
“I take a knee. My husband witnessed it and was like, ‘Hey are you hit?’ because I didn’t scream. I didn’t do anything. I was just out of body.”
Romano recalled she had a knee-jerk reaction upon being shot that stemmed from her time on the third season of the FOX reality TV series “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
In the show, celebrity contestants take on grueling military exercises and challenges under the direction of ex-Special Forces operatives.
Romano explained that the contestants were trained to give a thumbs-up to let their fellow cast members know that they were OK during the series’ perilous challenges.
The “Kim Possible” alum recalled that, out of habit, she gave Rooney a thumbs-up immediately after she was shot.
“He was like, ‘Oh, you’re good.’ And I was like, ‘No I’m hit.’ He goes, ‘Oh s—,’” Romano recalled of her husband’s reaction. She remembered that Rooney rushed to her aid and had to restrain himself from retaliating against the other party.
“So, he’s running to me and making sure I’m OK, and he’s fighting the urge to hurt the person … but he’s been practicing stoicism recently, and there was something in him,” Romano recalled.
“He was immediately into action mode, evaluating me and ran to get the car.
“I felt this huge rush that I’d never felt before where I was starting to get really woozy. I think it was shock.”
Romano told the hosts she didn’t experience any pain initially and described the thoughts that were running through her head, including her fears her children might be affected. The actress shares daughters Isabella, 7, and Sofia, 5, with Rooney.
“I was covered in blood from my forehead … and I said three things. I was like, ‘Am I gonna die? Who’s gonna take care of the girls? Is my career over?’” she recalled.
Romano explained that she came close to being blinded or killed.
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“If my head would’ve been tilted in any other direction, I would have been blind in my right eye. Or if I had turned my head, I could have gotten hit in a softer side of my skull, and I would have potentially been dead,” Romano said.
“It’s still in my eye,” she said of the pellets from the shotgun.
“I have a fragment still in my forehead, and I have a fragment still behind my eye, which is 1 millimeter away from blinding me.”
Romano previously explained on Instagram that the lead fragment behind her eye had to remain in her face because removing it could leave her blind.
The shot fragment lodged in her skull will also remain in place because doctors said it will expedite her healing process.
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During her podcast interview, Romano told hosts she put on a brave face at first and was making jokes about her medical crisis after she arrived at the hospital.
“In retrospect, I was trying to be funny and not cry because I wanted the people around me to feel more calm so that they could take better care of me,” Romano said.
The former Broadway star admitted that it has been difficult to accept she is a “gunshot survivor.”
Clay pigeon shooting is an outdoor sport in which upside-down circular disks made of limestone and pitch used as targets are propelled into the air by machines called traps. Shooters use shotguns, with each shot projecting hundreds of small lead balls to hit the clay pigeons.
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The sport is typically not considered dangerous as long as safety measures are followed.
